Chung’s Campaign Suspected of Conspiring False Voter Registration

Police searched Chung Dong-young’s campaign headquarters Saturday in a move originally triggered by an identity theft case. The probe is now spilled over the entire Chung’s campaign. The search was unprecedented, since authorities had never searched the office of a presidential contender pending an election.

Police say Jongro-gu Councilmember Jeong In-hun, 45, used the social security numbers of 522 people without authorization to register them as primary voters. She had received a party member list from United New Democratic Party (“UNDP”) member Kim, 34. Kim was arrested yesterday. Now the police are looking into who pulled the strings behind the scene. Sources close to the case confirmed, off the record, that officials firmly believe that Chung’s headquarters is the crime scene.

Why police stormed candidate Chung’s office –

Despite the seismic consequences, the police forced ahead with the search, since evidence pointed to candidate Chung’s campaign as the “epicenter” of the crime.

Three college students apprehended in connection with the ID theft confessed that Jeong In-hun had taken the victims’ list from Chung’s campaign headquarters on August 23.

Jeong In-hun denied the allegation, saying, “Kim handed me the list at around August 13. I kept it in my purse.” Noticing Jeong In-hun’s meeting with the three students in front of candidate Chung’s office, police gave more weight to the statements of the students.

Right after registering voters for the UNDP primary with the victims’ IDs, the students, including the son of Councilmember Jeong, reportedly forged the signatures of the ID theft victims at Chung’s office on August 25. Thus, the authorities believe that the theft and forgery were conducted as a single premeditated act.

At an arraignment held at Seoul District Court on Saturday, Jeong stated, “The Chung campaign delivered a business card to me via a courier service. The card bore the title: ‘Secretary General of the Women’s Seoul Regional Campaign Committee.’ Then, it proposed a senior post on the committee.” Police are confident that a higher party figure orchestrated the crime behind the scenes.

“When a judge signs a search warrant, she reviews all documents and evidence carefully. That was the determination of the court, and that was how we were given clearance to search Chung’s headquarters,” explained a senior police official yesterday, indicating the existence of an undisclosed figure.

Some experts, however, did not give full credit to the police for the search warrant. They argued that without president’s authorization, it would have been impossible to search candidate Chung’s office.

According to them, police must have reported the case and the need for the search warrant to Cheong Wa Dae, or South Korea’s presidential office, and Cheong Wa Dae consented to the move.

Probe into undisclosed figure –

Reporting to the police voluntarily yesterday, Kim and Councilwoman Jeong denied any involvement of a “higher” figure.

Kim reportedly told the police, “In July 2005, I received an Uri Party member list from the Seoul regional office. I printed it out and handed over the names of the members living in our [Jongro] district. Nobody directed me, and I did not follow anyone’s orders.”

The authorities, however, suspect that Kim must have played the role of messenger between Councilwoman Jeong and a higher figure. Kim served at the UNDP Jongro office as secretary to the office head without any particular official duties.

Further, police noticed that Kim disclosed the personal information of 800 Jongro members out of the total of 4,000 names. Thus, they believe that Kim may have disclosed the information of the remaining members to another accomplice.

A police source explained on the condition of anonymity, “They turned themselves in after some time passed. They may have needed some time to orchestrate their police statements to protect someone.”

To find out who that higher figure may be, police searched the UNDP Jongro office and Kim’s house on Saturday. They are now looking for Councilman Jeong’s laptop that she had taken with her while on the run from the authorities.